The Things We Do For Love
by My-R Cullen
Summary: Edward is being teased about something he did for Bella. What is it? Word prompt challenge. One-shot.


**A/N: This is a word prompt no 23 in the Object, Room, Person challenge on this great Writer's block site. I will post the link on my profile.**

**This o/s is unbeta'ed so all mistakes are mine.  
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**I own nothing as usual!  
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"Awwwww. That's so sweet."

OH my God.

If I had to listen to one more exclamation of how sweet or cute or considerate I was, I would bash my head into the wall.

Why did I ever trust a woman with a secret?

I should have known Bella wouldn't be able to keep it to herself. It has only been two days and half of Washington knew about it.

"I am not one to gush but seriously this is really nice of him," claimed Rosalie Hale, a.k.a the somewhat voice of reason in the girly trio.

"Yes, it is really wonderful of him. If Jazz did the same for me, I'd propose to him on the spot!" exclaimed the little bundle of energy known as Alice Brandon, the second member of the aforementioned girly trio currently residing on my couch.

"I know. I felt like a princess," said the little telltale that I called a girlfriend,

Bella.

Apparently the three of them fought over some stuffed animal in kindergarten, tugged on each other's braids and became best friends by the end of the day. Twenty years later and they are still best friends, but I am always hoping Bella would change her mind.

"Show me again, Bells," asked Alice for the millionth time since she graced us with her visit today.

"Would you please stop with the 'Awwwws' and 'ohhhhhhs'? They make me cringe, okay?" I tried to scowl but failed miserably So I headed to the kitchen to grab myself a beer.

"What? You should be proud that you are caring and loving man." I heard Alice reply while my head was inside the fridge.

"Well, you guys are making me sound like I am whipped, which I am not," I said as I struggled to retain a part of my lost masculinity by tipping back the beer bottle and taking a large gulp of alcohol like those badasses in movies. Then I gave Bella a look that begged her to negate what I just said.

"No, baby. Of course you are not whipped. You are just really sweet and cute," and she gave me the smile that made the organ, which pumped blood through my body, stop for a second just for her.

"Again with the cute and sweet bullshit. Guys are not cute or sweet. They are supposed to be tough and manly. Your adjectives are sucking the manliness out of me, Bella. And I can't believe you told them," I sighed exaggeratedly.

"Awww, baby. You are my manly man," and she winked.

"Umm hello. We are right here and we just ate. You know how I feel about PDA, guys," thorn number one in my side said, throwing me a dirty look.

"Shut up, Rose. I think they are very adorable," thorn number two reprimanded thorn number one.

So we had gone from cute to adorable.

This was getting worse and I had to get out of here before masculinity kissed my ass goodbye.

"Alright. I am out of here. I will go hang out with Emmet and Jasper for some time."

_Maybe when I come back, both of you would be gone and I could demonstrate how manly I was to Bella_, I added mentally.

I grabbed my cell phone and keys and planted a kiss on my girl's cheek. I was halfway out the door when I heard Alice's gushing all over again and Rosalie snickering at my facial expression.

Ughhhhhh.

I seriously needed to converse with someone from the same gender. At least they wouldn't dwell on that thing I did two days ago.

Boy I was wrong.

The minute I arrived at the bar, I noticed Emmett's stare fixated at my crotch.

"Emmett, what the hell are you doing?" I asked, my suspicious eyebrow shooting up till it almost met my crazy ass bronze hair.

"Looking for your balls."

With that he erupted in laughter along with Jasper.

They knew too!

When I got back home, Bella and I were having a discussion about what the word "secret" meant.

I closed my eyes in exasperation awaiting the humiliation I would be receiving on the hands of my best friends.

"Dude, I can't believe you did that," was Emmett's first sentence since he stopped cackling.

"Yeah, man. Not only is it wrong but you will turn our women on us. Last night Alice asked me 'Why can't you just be like Edward?'" Jasper said trying to imitate Alice's voice.

Oh yeah. Alice and Jasper had been going steady since Bella had that genius idea that we should introduce our friends to each other. Rose and Emmett, too, got together after she introduced him to her right hook.

"Thank God Rose isn't so sappy."

"Shut up, assholes. I did my girl a favor and I didn't think that the whole world would know about it."

"Just so you know, Esme knows too," Jasper deadpanned.

Seriously!

She told my mother too?

"I am an idiot," I muttered.

I got a collective nod from both of these jerks.

They tortured me for an additional fifteen minutes then they gave up. I got myself a beer and reminisced about what happened on Monday.

_Bella had just gotten back from the hospital after having broken her leg when she slipped on a patch of ice outside her apartment. Being the good boyfriend, I insisted that she stayed with me the entire time she had to wear the cast since she would be unable to move about for a while._

_Now she was sitting in my bedroom, looking like she just lost her puppy._

"_What is wrong, baby?" I asked._

"_My toes look awful," she replied, a frown marring the beautiful space between her eyes._

"_What?" I chuckled._

"_The stupid cast makes my feet look horrible and my toes look so weird without nail polish on them."_

"_Well baby, they look good to me," I said and hoped to God that was the appropriate answer to her previous remark. You never knew when it came to girls. Just last month, she hid in the bathroom for half an hour after she asked me if that dress made her look fat and I made the eternal mistake of pondering her question. She burst into tears and ran to the bathroom. Turned out that she was hormonal because it was that time of the…you know what I mean._

"_I don't know, Edward. They just look so unattractive. Could you please hand me my handbag?"_

_I handed her bag and went out of the room to get a bottle of water. When I came back she was hunched over the leg in the cast, trying to apply some weird colored nail polish. _

"_Babe, what you are doing? You will hurt yourself if you bend anymore than this."_

"_Dammit. I just can't reach my toes," she said with anguish fit for a Shakespearean tragedy_.

_I loved Bella but I hoped she was not going to cry. Like most males, the sight of tears sent me into panic mode._

"_Alright. Hand me the nail polish." _

"_What are you going to do?" And she looked at me as if I had suddenly grown two heads._

"_I will apply the nail polish on your toes," I almost said duhhh at the end._

"_But you are a guy."_

"_Yes. But you are important to me. So I will risk emasculating myself for a few minutes so you won't hurt yourself doing acrobats so you can reach your toes."_

_She flashed me a sincere smile and handed me the nail polish bottle._

"_I might mess up so you have to guide me here."_

_Thankfully, the big toe was not very difficult to do. The other little ones were a different story. Bella had little smudges all over her toes. I tried to stay within the nails but they were tiny and she kept moving around and laughing at me whenever I messed up._

_After a gruesome twenty minutes, I was done. I put the nail polish aside as I wiped beads of sweat from my eyebrows._

"_You look like you were dismantling a bomb, not putting on nail polish," she giggled._

"_This is harder than dismantling a bomb. And please tell me that the smudges on your toes are removable." I did not want to be responsible for ruining her feet._

"_Don't worry about that. I will handle it."_

_I was fluffing a pillow for her back when she pulled me to her mouth and kissed me. I felt her little hands wrap themselves around my neck, messaging the muscles strained there because of the "Adorn Bella' feet operation"._

_She broke the kiss and her chocolate eyes stared at my green ones._

_I was lost in her eyes and I almost didn't catch that she said 'I love you'._

Back to the present, the two baboons sitting with me were arguing about a stupid bet they made at work. I paid for my beer and left them to their stupid argument.

When I made it home, Alice and Rosalie were gone. Bella was asleep on the couch with her manicured feet lying on the coffee table in front of her and her crutch on the floor.

I scooped her up very carefully and was about to lay her in bed when she opened her sleepy eyes.

"When did you come home?" her question sounded like a slur.

"Right now. Get back to sleep."

I tucked her under the covers and placed a tender kiss on her forehead.

"Edward?"

"Yeah?"

"Sorry I told everyone about the nail polish incident."

"Don't be sorry, baby. I am not mad or embarrassed. I would gladly do it again. I love you."

"Really? Thanks baby. I love you too."

Damn, her smile was blinding.

I was already under the covers and on my way to unconsciousness when she spoke again.

"What do you think about bubblegum pink? Would it go well with my blue cast?"

What did I get myself into?


End file.
